As you get accustomed to implementing the Ezzo principles in your daily life with your child, you will notice your child’s behaviors improve. This is wonderful and what we all want to see. But one negative effect of this is that you will start to slack off on your consistency. This is the natural ebb and flow of parenting.

He meets your level of expectation by doing as you ask. It doesn’t happen immediately, but he gets there eventually.

You are pleased with your progress and notice how compliant he has become.

Fully unaware that you are doing so, you begin to slack off on requiring a “yes mommy” and eye contact. It takes work to remember to do these things and if you are not reminded every day of your child’s misbehaviors (which are not as apparent as they used to be), it is easy to forget.

Because you have slacked off, he does too. You may have been at 90% first-time obedience, but it quickly slips to 50% without you even noticing.

At some point, you start getting frustrated with him and find yourself getting more and more angry in your daily interactions. Then it finally dawns on you that you haven’t been very consistent. No wonder he hasn’t been listening. You haven’t been asking for a “yes mommy”, requiring eye contact, training him in times of non-conflict, etc. You apologize to him for your previous anger and explain to him what happened and that you are going to bump up your consistency.

Again, he meets your level of expectation.

And the cycle repeats itself.

So if you begin to notice that your child’s behaviors have gotten worse, look to yourself first. Our children will rise to whatever level of expectation we set for them. (See “Say what you mean. Mean what you say.”) Have you started slacking off? Do you have something going on in your life that is requiring all of your attention (a new baby, a family crisis, etc.)? Have you and your spouse slacked off on couch time? Look closely at yourself and your behaviors, and you will easily find the answer to your child’s problems.

Then get back into the groove of requiring a higher standard from your child. Pick up your copy of Childwise and start rereading a chapter or two. Start rereading some of my previous posts. Start listening to the Mom’s Notes if you have them. All of these resources will help remind you how to apply the principles and will inspire you to get back to work with it.

Above all, don’t beat yourself up over this. This ebb and flow in our parenting is a natural fact of life. If you are human, it will happen. Just get used to it and be mindful of it so your child’s behaviors don’t get so out of control that they are doubly hard to correct. In fact, you will likely notice that your child’s behaviors might slip a bit, but he will never go back to where you were before you started implementing these principles. Your child will have become used to them so it won’t take him long to rise to your new higher standard. And the more you apply them the more natural they become, so it will be easy to jump right back in after you have slacked off for a little while.

3 responses to “The ebb and flow of parenting”

My husband and I were just talking about this “ebb and flow” concept today. We’ve noticed that our 18 mo. old son, Blake, hasn’t been listening as well these past few days. I can totally see the pattern you described. We have times of progress and it’s satisfying to see Blake obeying regularly to our direction. And as we start to feel content with his level of obedience, we find ourselves allowing more slip ups. It’s time to start having high expectations again and to have consistent consequences when those expectations aren’t met.

Thank you! I know I’m not the only one, but it is so nice to hear that. 🙂 I think that is part of what I like about this. I can know why my child’s behavior is off. I can walk through an evaluation process to find where we slacked off or what has happened in our lives to cause things to change. I am enjoying your posts, b/c they are regular reminders to me to stay on top of things.
Blessings!